A Simple Job

Looking back at my last rant, I think I should try to keep this as short as possible. So. Today was a good day. I got in contact with my fixer, did a simple delivery job, and came back with 4,000 Nuyen. I don’t know what was in the package. Our naivete about Denver was deemed as an asset in Raven’s, our employer’s, eyes. Although, I could take a guess at it if I wanted to. It was at least something valuable enough that two gangs were willing to bribe us first before trying to take it by force. The most suspicious thing about this was that three of my compatriots for this run were there at the Stuffer Shack on New Year’s Day. There was no discussion about this development but we got along with each other for the most part.

Mellora was stern but nice. She was well-equipped for the job and I must admit that van of hers is something to be admired. We talked about vehicles and the possibility of installing a Rigger interface into hers. There was a part of me that keeps saying I’ve seen her before. I did perform a face-scan on her earlier in the week but I got nothing. I did get a few vacation photos from Zer0 though. He was our Decker for this mission. We didn’t talk much but he’s valuable to the team seeing as he and Mellora were the two reasons as to why we shook off those gang members chasing us. Then, we have Felix a.k.a. He-who-points-guns-at-babies. I do feel sorry for the guy. For some reason, he just doesn’t get along with kids. He’s probably facing some hard times too. McHugh’s is a luxury to him. At least, he was happy when I bought him his meal. Luke was the odd one out of the group. He didn’t even look like he was out of high school! He wore these baggy shorts and spouted all of this streettalk right in front of our employer’s face. I was going to stop him but it turned out that Raven kind of liked it and compiled to give each of us a thousand Nuyen bonus from the original payment. I was stunned. Another strange thing about Luke is that he changed clothes before we entered Omar Chavez’s house. That itself is rather common. Deception and disguises are used throughout this business. It was the transformation that irked me. I got the same vibe I got from Mellora when I saw him in a more formal outfit. It’s just something familiar that I should recognize. He’s like Tuxedo Mask, I swear.

We met Stalker- a retired Street Samurai, Peaches- loved hearing her stories, and Omar Chavez- a decrepit, old man who likes shooting at Elven boys…………….. It didn’t hit him but he was still scared to death. My weapons were in the waiting room. If I did anything, I wouldn’t be alive to talk about it. I still hate it though……….. At least, my teammates were nice. We all have our secrets to keep but they seem like kind people deep down inside, even Mr. Child Hater. I just wish we met on better terms. The police still haven’t questioned me about that incident. I’ve got to find a more legitimate line of work soon.

Scene 1: The team receives a call from Tabitha Morgan asking them to meet Jaron Falcone at The Horse Trot Ranch. At the ranch, the team first meets Falcone’s assistant, Hafiz before speaking with Falcone. Falcone asks the team to retrieve Jonathan Belinkiy who was kidnapped earlier in the day. Falcone agrees to pay 2000 nuyen up front and 3500 more when Belinkiy is returned safely.

Scene 2: At the scene of the crime, the team discovers the following clues:

An Aztec obsidian knife worth 600 nuyen

Eight clove cigarette butts left in the bathroom sink

Belenkiy’s commlink (Transys Avalon)

Small pill-box of strong sleeping aids in the toiletry kit

Engraved pocket watch with an inscription that reveals the watch was a gift from the VP of Ares R&D Division for outstanding achievement

Crow’s feather wrapped in leather under the pillow

At 8:30 am, the security systems at the Horse Trot Ranch were hacked into. Falcone is relieved to report that the hacker failed to erase the surveillance footage. Surveillance footage shows that at 4:30 am, three human or elven Amerindian females entered the compound wearing light body armor and tribal masks.

Belinkiy’s absence was not noted until Falcone received the ransom demand at 9 am.

Scene 3: The Hardpan. After learning about Blackfoot, the team heads to the Hardpan looking for her. In a hostile environment, Olo casts a masking spell on Felix. Felix then sneaks into the backroom while Mellora and Zer stage a fight as a distraction. Felix finds nothing of interest before getting caught. Felix slips out the backdoor safely. The sissy slap fight ends with Zer0 shamefully leaving the premises. Mellora manages to convince Kira Blackfoot to contact her with the help of Rachel Sands. Mellora also seems to have made a friend in Neptune who is a regular at the Hardpan.

Scene 4: The team receives two calls; one from Stalker and one from Kira Blackfoot. Stalker agrees to help the team find the Azzies in the sewers but warns them about the dangers. Kira is threatened with the mentioning of the feather and is offered a chance to make a trade. Kira just disconnects the call.

Scene 5: Stalker helps the team find the Azzies in the sewers. He charges them 400 nuyen a piece. Zer0 hacks into the security system without getting caught. Olo mind controls Buster the Barghest. The team takes down four members of Los Espejos, but they do alert the rest. After a brief interrogation of Gabriel, the cell leader, the team learns that they have been tricked and Belinkiy is nowhere to be found.

Zer0 strips the main computer of its files. Inside the files, he finds mostly Aztlan propaganda. The only worthwhile information are timetables and profiles of “packages” to be delivered. Each profile is an athletic competitor from Aztlan. A matrix search of the profile names and faces confirm that the athletes are legitimate. There are also instructions on how to handle their two barghest animals, Buster and Princess.

Scene 6: Outside of the sewers, the team gets a call from Kira Blackfoot. She promises to return Belinkiy unharmed, but after the scheduled deadline for the ransom. The team discusses a potential backup plan utilizing Olo’s magic in case they do not recover Belinkiy in time.

The team starts hitting up all their contacts, trying to fish out information that can be helpful. With some new leads, Zer0 manages to hack into Belinkiy’s commlink. He is able to find the frequency of Belinkiy’s RFID tag that Ares places in all their top executives. With this knowledge, the team quickly locates Belinkiy.

Scene 7: The team tracks down Belinkiy’s signal and find him located inside a cheap motel in a rundown part of the Sioux Sector.

After some thorough scouting by Lion-O and Olo, the team correctly deduces the location of Belinkiy and the Black Cat’s tactics. The team covers all the exits and initiatiates their plan. Zer0 hacks into a van and motorcycle to block the parking garage exit.

Somehow the Black Cats who were guarding Belinkiy are alerted and enact their escape plan. They try to escape out of the window of the third story of the motel. After Belinkiy is lowered close to the ground floor, Mellora opens fire from a sniper position and downs two of the Black Cats.

Pinned down, the rest of the Black Cats hole up in the room while they send out two Spirits of Man to deal with the attack. Spells are slung back and forth between the Spirits and the team, resulting in one of the Spirits dissipating and Felix fleeing for his life.

Zer0 gets the van and with the help of Lion-O, load Belinkiy into the back of the van. They two pick up everyone else and depart the area as quickly as possible.

Belinkiy is returned to the Horse Trot Ranch ahead of time and the team is awarded the rest of their pay.

This is just my quick notes on who did what and the outcomes. If I forget anything important, please note it in the comments!

Scene 1: Club Denim. The team arrives early. Olo is very social and makes friends with Teo. Felix is anti-social. The team meets “Raven” whom they later learn is Mark Longfeather, a Koshari Chief.

Raven gives them a simple delivery mission. The team exits through the backdoor to avoid the suspected undercover cops in the dining area.

Scene 2: PCC:CAS tunnels. The team meets Stalker who guides them through a series of underground tunnels connecting the PCC Sector and CAS Sector.

Scene 3: Traffic Accident in the CAS Sector. While stuck in traffic, the team is approached by two separate groups led by An Peng and Johnny Ono. An Peng and Johnny offer them nuyen in exchange for the package but the Olo confuses them and the team speeds away through the congested traffic.

With Johnny in hot pursuit, Zer0 hacks into Johnny’s car and instructs it to pull aside, allowing Mellora to lose their tail.

Zer0’s bike is a little scratched up, but he didn’t hit any pedestrians! The other vehicles are unblemished.

Scene 4: CAS:UCAS tunnels. After regrouping, Lion-O and Olo meet Peaches. She guides them through the tunnels, showing them the Five by Five bar on their way to the UCAS Sector. The rest of the team crosses the border checkpoint without trouble.

Scene 5: Chavez Mansion. The team arrives at their delivery point which is the house of Omar Chavez. Michael, one of the house guards, guides the team to the shooting range where the team hands over the package intact. Omar thanks them and Michael sees them out after paying them.

Scene 6: Pow wow at McHugh’s. The team agrees to relax at a local McHugh’s and get to know each other a little better.

I was hanging out at the Stuffer Shack, minding my own business when some scum walked in and started threatening people over some baby. Regular people, just doing their thing in the middle of the night, just trying to get by. Did I act a little too rashly? Some might think so…but believe me, I am not losing any sleep over shooting that douchebag in the leg…he’ll live, or not…doesn’t matter. Screw over the little guy, go to hell, I say. Frustrated I couldn’t get any good info on these guys…but I’ll keep looking. Met some interesting people that night, let’s see if we meet again in the near future…I wouldn’t be surprised.

Eeeeehhhh. This was not the way I wanted to start out the new year. I’m tired, my suit’s dirty, and I came back from a convenience store empty-handed. The adrenaline and my frustration over what just happened are probably the only things keeping me awake. I’ll guess I should talk about this now so I can calm down and go back to sleep.

I woke up early today. Someone thought it would be a funny idea to set off some fireworks at 2 ‘o clock in the morning. I decided to take this time to update a few documents and work on unpacking the rest of my gear. Five days in and there’s still about ten boxes that need to be sorted out. Moving’s a nightmare. I know I’ve said it many times on these recordings but it doesn’t make it any less true.

A little while later, I settled on cruising around a bit to get a feel for the roads here. Mapsofts are great but sometimes they can be wrong and finding out the discrepancies between what is listed and what’s actually there is vital for my business. I soon found myself close to a Stuffer Shack and figured I should go check to see if they had any holiday discounts on automotive repair equipment. It couldn’t have been pass 3:30 at the time but the store was very busy. Well, most of us probably had a good reason to be there that early on New Year’s Day. Like that one woman who was buying supplies for her baby. In fact, most of this story should be centered around her. I didn’t get a good look at her but from what I could hear, she seemed just to be your average mother getting some last minute groceries while trying to console her crying child. She bought her things and left and came back moments later to buy diapers.

Then something blew up. I was pinned down by the debris from most of the front wall and aisle two. Thankfully, my suit protected me and I was able to shuffle out of that mess within minutes. However, three guys with guns had already walked in and appeared to be taking the store hostage as their leader shouted, “Where’s da girl and da baby?” to whoever was in shooting distance. Even though there was probably a chance for me to sneak past them and head to my car, it didn’t feel right leaving a woman and child in danger. I took few steps further back into the store and found two more people close by. They seemed just as shocked as I was initially and scared for their lives. They also kind of looked like they came from a rock concert but that’s beside the point.

I took cover in between aisles five and six. Further down, I saw a man dressed in black with his pistol out in the open. Keep in mind, I had weapons on me but I wasn’t willing to use anything lethal just yet. Plus, if I took out my pistol, it might have been caught on tape. The man winked at me, darted back to the corner of the store and shouted, “The baby’s here! Down in aisle five!” or something similar. I still can’t figure out why he would do such a thing. My best guess is that he wanted to provide a distraction but you don’t endanger a child’s life like that! Or, at least, you shouldn’t. The next thing I noticed was the hum of a cleaning drone as it approached me and released all of its wax within a few feet from itself, followed by footsteps of a guy who was carrying an AK-97. On cue, he slipped and released his weapon. I can’t say if this was a stroke of pure luck or someone was pulling the strings for me.

Orchestrated or not, I took the opportunity to pounce on the guy. Gunshots and screams broke out while I shook him down and asked the big question: “Why are they so important?” He was a bit of a hysterical but he managed to spout something about their leader being the only one in on it. Soon after, a shady-looking fellow was running to the exist. The man I had previously pinned down had complied to stay and I stood in the way the new man’s path so I could ask about why he was leaving so abruptly. He was just as frantic as the last one, shouting that he needed to get out of here but refusing to give me any reason as to why. Then, another person ran inside: Joeby, the little brother of the leader to this operation. His brother, Stooby, had been knocked unconscious for a while now and Joeby asked me to help carry his brother out of here.

On one hand, the man did try to commit robbery and kidnapping and was most likely the cause of the explosion that started this whole mess. On the other, it appeared that Stooby was taking orders from higher up which probably meant that he was a Shadowrunner just like me. I also had to deal with the man who was just trying to escape. On top of that, the police would be here any minute. I decided to let Joeby pass by me. I did ask him if he had a DocWagon account. While he was desperate, it didn’t stop him from scoffing at that idea. Man, I feel like trash. Elite trash, apparently, but still trash. I hate them too, but they’re necessary in my line of work and many others. Back to our story, I got the shady-looking man to crack and reveal the packets of frozen food he had stuffed in his jacket. Shoplifting in a hostage situation is petty but I have no right to play cop. I wished him a “Happy New Year” and he went on his merry way.

Too much chaos for one night. Too many people to remember. I’m glad my comlink took pictures of them. I’ll try to run face-scans later. The last thing of note about this is that I patched up one of the Shadowrunners. He was unconscious and bleeding out. I managed to stabilize him. He’ll last to get proper treatment from a real doctor. I can only hope that KES doesn’t question me. I’m just not in the mood………

Happy New Year Felix!

So I was like at the Stuffer Shack buying tampoons for my hippie sister. I know… not the coolest thing to do during new years. But if I don’t do it, she bleeds all over my apartment. Girls are gross.

I was trying to figure out if buying the pack with “wings” would be just as protective as the one with “super absorbency” when this FRICKENBABY starts crying the whole place up! Fricken babies…worst things on the planet. I can’t even think straight now!

Then this explosion happens. BOOOOM!! And it takes out this goober standing next to the wall. Poor goober. So these guys come in with guns asking for the baby. FINALLY, my kind of people. I point my gun at the baby and start yelling “Over here! Get it!”

And then this hot chick looks at me and starts yelling. What the crap? Does she not know that I’m the good guy? Some people just don’t understand.

So the crazy girl hits me in the face with a stick! Now I’ve been hit in the face many times before and let me tell you: This was a good one. Her fist was clenched tight, she swung with power and wonderful technique, and she even added a little twist at the end for style. This girl was a professional face-hitter.

Anyways everyone in the store turns out to be Rambo- even the goober! They beat the crap out of the guys looking for the baby. Literally. I think one of the guys pooped himself! Denver is a weird place.

I slipped off before people could start asking questions. I’m not a fan of questions. Man, this year is going to be weird… Now what did I need to buy at the store again? I forget…

Wrong place, wrong time. Again.

Sleep was impossible until I debriefed myself. Old habit, but one that is just as useful as a shadowrunner as it was on the Force.

I ran through the sequence of events at the Stuffer Shack, and even drew a sketch for myself. At the time, my first concern had been to keep the baby safe. I didn’t know what the woman had done, or where she had come from, but even if the mother were trouble of some kind, the baby was innocent. And just on general principles — blowing out a window with a boomer and waving guns around at late-night shoppers was not the sort of behavior I associate with white hats.

The first guy — Stubby, Stooby? — hadn’t seen me, that’s for sure. I doubt he’ll even remember what he had for breakfast that day. The second guy certainly had; as had Stooby’s ‘brother.’ No one else… except… that crazy guy who ratted out the baby. Crazy? Or a plant. More likely a plant. Too bad he could take a helluva punch; I would have liked to see Puebsec cart him away. Who the hell points guns at babies, anyway?

Next time I run out of fizzies in the middle of the night, I’m bringing my taser.

The guy with the cane and the hoity-toity accent did see me, though. I liked working with him, he didn’t scare easily and thought on his feet. In case he was some kind of fixer, I gave him my card. Who knows, maybe a job might come of it.

But it doesn’t really matter because the security cams would have captured me in all my violent glory. Someone surely would run facial recognition on me and I’ll have Puebsec on my doorstep tomorrow, asking me to ‘assist their inquiries.’ It’s a clear case of self-defense, and defense of fellow citizens, but I’m sure some rookie will razz me. Just for fun, or to angle for a promotion. And all this after I took such pains not to kill anyone.

Disgusted, I pour myself two fingers of scotch. I came to Denver for a fresh start, would I have to bug out again?

The adventure log is where you list the sessions and adventures your party has been on, but for now, we suggest doing a very light “story so far” post. Just give a brief overview of what the party has done up to this point. After each future session, create a new post detailing that night’s adventures.

One final tip: Don’t stress about making your Obsidian Portal campaign look perfect. Instead, just make it work for you and your group. If everyone is having fun, then you’re using Obsidian Portal exactly as it was designed, even if your adventure log isn’t always up to date or your characters don’t all have portrait pictures.